About
50% of MMORPG players would consider
themselves addicted to the game. Some have tried to quit but failed.
Others become angry or irritated when they are unable to play. While
there is no clear line between healthy and obsessive game-play, it
is clear that problematic usage is not uncommon.

I call myself an addict, because I share the same symptoms
as someone who's addicted to smoking, or alcohol, or some other
substance. I think about EQ while I'm not playing, I get stressed
when I have to go 24 hrs without logging on for a fix, and I wasn't
able to quit when I tried. If that's not an addiction, I don't
know what is. [m, 22]

There are a variety of mechanisms
in MMORPGs that may encourage obsessive usage. MMORPGs employ
well-known behavioral
conditioning principles from psychology that reinforce repetitive
actions through an elaborate system of scheduled rewards. In effect,
the game rewards players to perform increasingly tedious tasks and
seduces the player to “play” industriously. These environments
also encourage making friends or joining guilds that then become
sources of social obligations.

While it’s easy to point at game mechanics in explaining problematic
usage, this approach is flawed because it completely dismisses
the fact that MMORPGs appeal only to certain video gamers. To
many FPS gamers, MMORPGs are too repetitive and slow to be fun.
Fundamentally, any explanation of problematic usage has to take
into account the players themselves. And once we do, we begin to
see how MMORPGs may be seductive because they relieve
many common psychological stresses. For example, players with
low self-esteem gain a tangible sense of power in these environments.
Players who feel they are undervalued or have no control in the
real world can become take on valuable or instrumental roles.
It is in fact the ability of MMORPGs to empower users through
its mechanisms that drive problematic usage.

At the same time, we should also be more critical about the
implications of labeling media forms as "addictive".
Why is it that say that gamers can become addicted to online games
when we don't question the average American who watches 28 hours
of TV a week? Why is it that video gamer deaths get on the 7 o'clock
news when people die all the time when they play golf or while
watching TV?